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Static, Dynamic, Generative: What’s Next for the Web? w/ Guillermo Rauch

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Web Development Neat May 15, 2025

This week, Chuck and special guest co-host Aaron Francis talk with Guillermo Rauch live from React Miami. From early days at Zeit to founding Vercel and launching Next.js, Guillermo shares stories of scaling infrastructure, creating developer-centric products, and navigating startup challenges. They dive into how AI is transforming the web, why thoughtful product expansion matters, and the frameworks guiding Vercel’s future.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro
(02:54) - Rum review and rating: Fleur de Caña 18
(04:31) - Every company is now a tech company
(11:35) - The early days from Zeit to Vercel
(19:03) - Vercel's approach to cybersecurity
(23:53) - How Vercel decides what features and products to pursue
(29:32) - Wins, misses, and wild ideas
(45:51) - What drives Guillermo today
(50:00) - Growing up in Argentina
(52:05) - Boca or River?
(54:21) - Guillermo’s surprising Laravel take
(01:02:32) - If not tech, what would Guillermo do instead?
(01:06:50) - Plugs

Links

Fleur de Caña 18: https://www.flordecana.com/ [https://www.flordecana.com/]
Vercel: https://vercel.com/ [https://vercel.com/]
Socket: https://socket.io/ [https://socket.io/]
Next.js: http://nextjs.org/ [http://nextjs.org/]
Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/ [https://www.djangoproject.com/]
React: https://react.dev/ [https://react.dev/]
WordPress: https://wordpress.org [https://wordpress.org/]
Kubernetes: https://kubernetes.io/ [https://kubernetes.io/]
v0: https://v0.dev/ [https://v0.dev/]
Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/ [https://www.twilio.com/]
Docusign: https://www.docusign.com/ [https://www.docusign.com/]
Jeff Bezos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos]
Uber: https://www.uber.com/ [https://www.uber.com/]
Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/ [https://www.airbnb.com/]
Washio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washio_(company) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washio_(company)]
The Jetsons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons]
Lars Grammel: https://x.com/lgrammel [https://x.com/lgrammel]
Jared Palmer: https://x.com/jaredpalmer [https://x.com/jaredpalmer]
AI SDK: https://ai-sdk.dev/ [https://ai-sdk.dev/]
Pokemon: https://www.pokemon.com/ [https://www.pokemon.com/]
Game Boy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy]
Boca Juniors: https://www.bocajuniors.com.ar/ [https://www.bocajuniors.com.ar/]
River Plate: https://www.cariverplate.com.ar/ [https://www.cariverplate.com.ar/]
Taylor Otwell: https://x.com/taylorotwell [https://x.com/taylorotwell]
Laravel: https://laravel.com/ [https://laravel.com/]
Codex CLI: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11096431-openai-codex-cli-getting-started [https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11096431-openai-codex-cli-getting-started]
Waymo: https://waymo.com/ [https://waymo.com/]
Node: https://nodejs.org/ [https://nodejs.org/]
Bun: https://bun.sh/ [https://bun.sh/]
Deno: https://deno.com/ [https://deno.com/]
Dax: https://x.com/thdxr/ [https://x.com/thdxr/]
Balseiro Institute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balseiro_Institute [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balseiro_Institute]
Grand Theft Auto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto]
Call of Duty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty]

Connect with Guillermo

Website: https://rauchg.com/ [https://rauchg.com/]
X / Twitter: https://x.com/rauchg [https://x.com/rauchg]

Connect with Chuck and Robbie

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner [https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner]
Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd [https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd]

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